Casually sitting and drinking the world's shittest coffee I feel Cody tense beside me before he throws himself out of his chair."The fuck?" I ask but then movement catches in the corner of my eye.Isabella."Fuck. Fuck no!" I shout as I run out of the cafe and to my woman who's just finished being sick and has fallen on her front."Isabella?" I shout, but she doesn't seem to hear me. All my men, apart from Cody, run inside and bring out a guy who looks to be 6 feet tall. He's not bigger than me, but he's still big.I take hold of Isabella and lift her body up only to find bruises and marks on her body making me see red."YOU!" Cody shouts and I lift my head to see who it is that he's looking at."Lorenzo...that's Dean. That's who ruined Isabella!""You know what to do," I say to my men who know what I'm talking about. Dean puts up a fight, claiming fuck knows what but I don't listen. When they bring a female out of the apartment complex I can only assume she was working with this bas
My body hurt from the moment I stepped foot into my room. I had the food Louisa made me and once she had cleared all my wounds and put some strips along my stitches, I sit on the bed and wonder what Lorenzo is up to.I checked my work email to find one from Dunken about how it was going but I couldn't bring myself to call this late at night to tell him what had happened but I also didn't want to just let the email go and not say anything so I typed out a simple email.My body hurt from the moment I stepped foot into my room. I had the food Louisa made me and once she had cleared all my wounds and put some strips along my stitches, I sit on the bed and wonder what Lorenzo is up to.I checked my work email to find one from Dunken about how it was going but I couldn't bring myself to call this late at night to tell him what had happened but I also didn't want to just let the email go and not say anything so I typed out a simple email.To: DunkenGranger@Multidesignandhomes.orgFrom: Isabe
Warmth hits my body before my mind has a chance to catch up.Snapping my eyes open I'm greeted with a sleeping Isabella. Her drool sits on my chest but it doesn't irritate me the way it would if it was anyone else, it simply makes me smile.Shifting her onto her side, she doesn't even flinch or move a muscle apart from to bury herself further into the mattress.Grabbing my clothes from the floor I head to my room and take a quick shower before meeting Dante in the office at the far end of the manor to go over some security footage he pulled up."Morning bro. You're looking refreshed and too happy... I don't like it""Fuck off.""Did you not stay in your room last night?""No. I went and stayed with Isabella. Thinking I was just going to crawl into her bed and sleep, Imagine my surprise at 1 am when I walked into her bathroom and found her watching Netflix in the fucking bath""Anything good?""Fuck knows but it has something to do with doctors' and Nurses'"Porn?" he asks with a grin.
17-year-old Isabella"Mama, I don't understand the sudden rush"I speak over my mom's frantic movements, her quick assurance to let me know that everything she's doing is basically non-negotiable. Nothing she ever does is without thinking it through properly. She has to do her checklists, and she needs to do them months in advance if I remember correctly, but I know that this move is going to shit one way or the other."Por Amor de Dios, Isabella, Simplemente Empaca to habiticón y apaga ese telefono," which basically translates to 'For goodness sakes, Isabella, just pack up your room and switch that phone off,' and which also means..."Shut up and let me do this my way"Yes, boss.Leaving my mother to the kitchen and living room, I make my way upstairs and find myself locking my bedroom door. I live in a lovely town in Malaga, Spain, and I have been raised here all of my life, so moving to America...it's a lot to deal with.I'd like to think that my mother is doing this solely for chan
23-Year-Old Isabella: A few weeks before her 24th birthday4 years have gone by so fast.College wasn't as fun and relaxing as I thought it was going to be. I still have flashbacks about waking up and being taken to the hospital by a very regretful and tearful Jodi, but she is still my best friend, and I never blamed her for any of the trauma I went through.Everything on top of the trauma just added to the stress. Constant preps for exams, the idea of becoming something other than a simple student or a nobody in a world where you are expected to have travelled earth just for a part-time sales assistant, the pressure it puts on newly grads, and these ideas I wanted to have to create a life for me and my mom always get thrown to the forefront of my mind because I don't want her working for so long. I want her to retire and enjoy her life.I owe her everything; she raised me and stood by me when things became that difficult at college; she watched me burn myself out, held my hand when I
"Have you lost your absolute small mind, Lorenzo?" My sister's voice snaps me out of my stupor of making sure my weapons are reloaded."What is it, Sophia?""I've just had Pops on the phone telling me my flight is booked for Italy""Yeah? And what's the problem?" There is no problem. She hasn't been home in months and refuses to tell us why. She moved here a few years ago, leaving her friends and everyone behind, but never gave a specific reason as to why she left, so I made the choice for her."Yes, there's a bloody problem, Lorenzo. I'm old enough to make my own choices and I don't need you making them for me," she snaps. She's definitely got the Italian anger. It rolls off us all in waves."I know and I'm sorry. Grammes and mom have been in about you not visiting, and it kind of made me feel bad for having you here and working you to much" It was a blatant lie, but she doesn't need to know that."Don't bring your pity party with you, will you" she says as she huffs and sits down."
"Isabella, sweetheart, she's gone"Hearing Miranda say this was Ice water as my wake-up call every morning, I replay those words Miranda whispered to me that afternoon. They seem to be the only words I have stuck in my head as I watched my mother's chest finally slow down. Tears broke free and the guttural cry that left me broke me even more because it wasn't me.Evie was there and Miranda was there but I was so alone that I wouldn't have minded a simple out at that moment.But I couldn't leave my only living relatives behind because I simply couldn't cope. So instead of the fear I had about being alone or feeling exhausted by that feeling, I did the one thing I knew would work... I shut it out. I shut down and I left the living room once they took my mom."Izzy, please eat. You need to eat" Every single waking moment Evie would have a bottle of water for me and something snack-ish. I wasn't hungry but somehow I couldn't voice those words."Cody's here," she said so softly while putti
"Moron?" I ask with a feeling of amusement. No one has ever dared to call me a moron, and if she's one of Cody's many hookups, then I won't be very happy about it.Something about her screams 'Mine' without actually screaming the words out."She got you there," Cody says as he pats my shoulder on a chuckle.I hadn't even introduced myself to her when she hurried out of the cafe with a fucking salute my way. Turning around, I'm face-to-face with 13 grown men laughing."Yeah, yeah, keep fucking laughing," I grow as I take my seat next to Dante, who only nudges me harder."Is she going to be a problem?" I ask Cody as everyone else falls silent."Who?""Your fucking hookup," I snap, losing the will to live right now."That woman that just left? Isabella?"Isabella.Now I know her name, I feel like it's going to be imprinted in my brain for a while."Yes, you moron" and when all my men burst out laughing, I realised her term for calling Me the moron and I've just referred to one of my men